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Thursday, June 14, 2012

Five Weeks

It's been five weeks since we got our dairy goats. Five amazing weeks. Miss Mabel is doing a great job - we have completely switched over to raw goat's milk (we don't pasteurize or homogenize)...and haven't bought a single drop of cow's milk. We drink it straight, made chevre, and use it to make the best mac-n-cheese ever. Eventually, we'll be making different kinds of cheeses, learn to separate the cream from the milk (for coffee creamer and butter?) and hopefully making soaps and lotions from the milk. We've been learning how to care for the animals and have already experienced so much. One of our angoras likely got her leg caught between the pen walls and snapped her leg in half (poor baby). She's now in a cast and stuck in her pen for three weeks, until we can RE-xray her. She's also coming down with a case of bloat, since she's not as mobile as she normally is. We've learned what to give her and how to massage her belly to get that gas moving. Due to our back and forth weather, our baby dairy goat has come down with a nasty respiratory cold. We are waiting for an antibiotic delivery for her (she's on one now, but it isn't strong enough to fight what she has). I feel like we've been thrown into the trenches and we're doing well. Monday we leave to pick up our sheep (two handsome fellas, CVMromeldales..."Jester" and "Steve") - we'll be adding them to our crew and that should be the last of the new additions this year. Next year...chickens and bees (if all goes well).
On a separate note, there have been some troubles on the home front. I feel like things are getting better between my husband and me...we have a long, bumpy road ahead of us, but we'll be ok.

1 comment:

I am so impressed with the good Mabel has done for our family with her milk, and the good the other animals have been just for the experience of having farm animals - they are so funny and fun to watch! AND - I am so impressed with the way you have slipped into the role of farmer with such a perfect fit :) It seems so natural for you - the day-to-day care, the vet care, the research - you are amazing! And I love you :)

About Me

In June of 2011, my husband, three of our five children, our Black Lab (Blue) and our four inside cats (Freak, Fizzle, Rusty, and Bella) and three rabbits (Luna, Midnight and Winchester) have been living at our 1.3 acre farmhouse. We’ve been working on converting the land back to a farm. Since moving here, we’ve acquired a Great Pyrenees (Ollie), a number of outside kitties, a handful of goats, a couple sheep, a couple alpacas and bees/chickens are scheduled to arrive Spring of 2013. We also planted a number of fruit trees on the property (and plan to add a few more) and have been working on putting in gardens to grow as much of our own food as possible. We certainly aren’t experts in any of this, please join our adventure as we muddle through becoming farmers, beekeepers, shepherds and more.